Dramatic Photos of First Winter Ascent of Mount Alberta

Outlook Rockies has an incredible picture and story about the first winter ascent of Mount Alberta.
Alberta was not climbed until 1925 by a Japanese team which according to legend overcame a four meter overhanging rock by forming a human ladder and left a solid silver ice ax on the summit. The real ax was wood and steel and was retrieved later and is displayed at Jasper’s Yellowhead Museum.

The last of the Rockies’ major peaks to host climbers on its long, narrow, liberally corniced and highly exposed summit ridge, the mountain didn’t see its first ascent until 1925 – an accomplishment that wasn’t repeated until 1948. The Japanese Route is the easiest approach. It includes about 10 pitches of consistent 5.6 climbing on rock that is notoriously crumbly and prone to falling with semi-automatic frequency. This was the route followed by the winter climbers — who initially had wanted to climb the 600 meter vertical ice wall up the North Face (first climbed in the 1970’s)